Issues of San Francisco Weekly are shown as part of a media kit distributed by the newspaper’s sales team. [Image: San Francisco Media Company, supplied]

Brandon Reynolds will be removed as the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco alternative newspaper SF Weekly, according to two sources familiar with the decision.

Staffers at the newspaper were informed of the departure during an all-hands meeting on Wednesday. Reynolds was not invited to the meeting, one source said.

The newspaper has tapped Acoustic Guitar magazine editor Mark Kemp to take over for Reynolds. Kemp previously served as an editor at Rolling Stone magazine and as an executive at MTV Networks.

Kemp will start at the Weekly in February, two sources told The Desk. Reynolds will continue to serve as editor until the transition is complete. Reynolds did not return an request for comment.

The shake-up the latest in a series of changes involving the San Francisco Media Company, the group that owns the Weekly as well as the San Francisco Examiner and the now-shuttered San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Last October, the Media Company announced it would end publication of the Bay Guardian after a near-five decade run. Shortly after the announcement, The Deskreported the Media Company had plans to launch a marijuana-themed alternative newspaper in its place.

The San Francisco Evergreen is expected to begin publication later this month.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Mark Kemp as “Mark Kent” in the headline.]

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